- Joined
- Dec 30, 2010
- Messages
- 12,730
- Points
- 113
The whole weight of the PAP and the Prime Minister bore down on Low Thia Khiang in Parliament. Hsien Loong gave him a lashing in the most ‘constructive’ way after this term was made famous by Tony Tan in his Presidential Address. Hsien Loong could not make it any more constructive than what he did to Low Thia Khiang. This shaken Low’s confidence for a brief moment but he recomposed himself and stood there bravely to rebut everything Hsien Loong threw at him. He would not let any unwarranted remarks go unanswered and he took his time to rebut every one of them, not missing any.
Low Thia Khiang has shown his mettle expected of an opposition leader. He was not going to buckle under the spotlight. He held his ground and even Hsien Loong had to turn on a little smile on and off from his lecturing posture. Mind you, you had a Cambridge trained scholar speaking in his ‘mother tongue’ Queens English that he was most comfortable with and with a full vocabulary of choiced words in his finger tips. On the other side of the bench was a Chinese educated Nantah graduate, born and bred in Teochew and Mandarin but retorting in English, a language that was as good as alien to him. Low Thia Khiang not only spoke well and in good grammatically correct English, he fought back like a tiger. Imagine if the debate were to be conducted in Mandarin, the result would be quite different even though Hsien Loong is also a Mandarin speaker. Maybe next time Low Thia Khiang shall speak in Mandarin when taking on Hsien Loong (or anyone in Parliament) and let Hsien Loong have the choice to reply in English or Mandarin.
I think many who have glued to the TV to watch the drama would have stood up and gave him a standing ovation. Despite all the handicaps, underrepresented, 7 against 80, despite having to struggle with an alien language, despite having only limited resources, and in the face of a hostile and cynical dominant party whose candidates have occupied Parliament like their familiar living room, Low Thia Khiang stood tall, alone to face them. He did himself proud, did his party proud. And I am sure many of the PAP MPs must be quietly admiringly the way Low ‘articulated’ his positions without any fumble.
Many who watched the debate are giving Low Thia Khiang the nod as a worthy opposition leader in Parliament. His performance was a good example for his MPs to emulate and must have shown them that that’s the way to stand up against the hostile stares of intimidating opponents without having to give an inch, like a tiger. At least that was the impression Hsien Loong had of the WP leaders, turning into tigers and heroes. When your worthy opponents like the mighty PAP acknowledged your worthiness, you deserved it.
http://mysingaporenews.blogspot.sg/...ign=Feed:+MySingaporeNews+(My+Singapore+News)
Low Thia Khiang has shown his mettle expected of an opposition leader. He was not going to buckle under the spotlight. He held his ground and even Hsien Loong had to turn on a little smile on and off from his lecturing posture. Mind you, you had a Cambridge trained scholar speaking in his ‘mother tongue’ Queens English that he was most comfortable with and with a full vocabulary of choiced words in his finger tips. On the other side of the bench was a Chinese educated Nantah graduate, born and bred in Teochew and Mandarin but retorting in English, a language that was as good as alien to him. Low Thia Khiang not only spoke well and in good grammatically correct English, he fought back like a tiger. Imagine if the debate were to be conducted in Mandarin, the result would be quite different even though Hsien Loong is also a Mandarin speaker. Maybe next time Low Thia Khiang shall speak in Mandarin when taking on Hsien Loong (or anyone in Parliament) and let Hsien Loong have the choice to reply in English or Mandarin.
I think many who have glued to the TV to watch the drama would have stood up and gave him a standing ovation. Despite all the handicaps, underrepresented, 7 against 80, despite having to struggle with an alien language, despite having only limited resources, and in the face of a hostile and cynical dominant party whose candidates have occupied Parliament like their familiar living room, Low Thia Khiang stood tall, alone to face them. He did himself proud, did his party proud. And I am sure many of the PAP MPs must be quietly admiringly the way Low ‘articulated’ his positions without any fumble.
Many who watched the debate are giving Low Thia Khiang the nod as a worthy opposition leader in Parliament. His performance was a good example for his MPs to emulate and must have shown them that that’s the way to stand up against the hostile stares of intimidating opponents without having to give an inch, like a tiger. At least that was the impression Hsien Loong had of the WP leaders, turning into tigers and heroes. When your worthy opponents like the mighty PAP acknowledged your worthiness, you deserved it.
http://mysingaporenews.blogspot.sg/...ign=Feed:+MySingaporeNews+(My+Singapore+News)
